Today at the Virginia Home I served coffee to the residents. Now I have been drinking coffee for many moons, and was flabbergasted (thank you SATs) that thirty people can ask for thirty different kinds of coffee. The funniest thing that happened was when who we will call Mr. Blue, watched me make his coffee, then give ask for more ice and then give me a thumbs up. After everyone gets their coffee, which was a feat in itself, I proceeded to walked in circles around the room chit chatting and telling truly awful jokes. The best response to one of these truly awful jokes was a woman we will call Mrs. Orange exclaimed “Well I declare!” in a classic southern belle accent and then giggle. The residents of the Virginia Home were incredibly pleasant, well they even put up with me for a few hours.
Archive for February, 2009
Like the title? Well, according to James every week is probably a stressful week in my mind. It’s not true but I do tend to put a lot of pressure on myself. For example, I spent the last three days (including Friday EVENING) completing Dr. Leo’s “no big deal” lab report. However, I want to do well in my science courses and I didn’t want Leo to think I’m mentally challenged. I have never stressed out so much on a lab report (except chem 317 lab with Dr. Kanters but we all know how he is). On top of biochemistry, physic, seminar, and completing the lab report, I had to volunteer. I’m so exhausted! Every week when I volunteer, I feel I put myself in a potentially awkward position because I constantly meet new people. Then I thought to myself, “Wait! Volunteering is a stress reliever remember? I could hang out with a really cool person today.” So today for two hours, I got to chill with a teenager, X. He looked younger than he really is. We got to talking about everything while playing cards. We talked about family, medical anthropology, movies we love, celebrities scandalous behaviors, college, career goals, etc. We ended up watching a movie we both love, The Phantom of the Opera. Continue reading ‘Sweet End to a Stressful Week’
Today at the VA Home I labeled more clothes. I am getting used to the process of labeling and delivering the clothes. Today while I was working on the clothes, I had numerous visitors. People at the home were so pleased with the weather (high 60’s), but were complaining of the AC inside. One rather comical man created a song that he was singing through the hallways about the temperature inside the home. One line I distinctly remembered was “they want us to all die of pneumonia.” He is quite the character.
While I was labeling clothes, Greg swung by to chat. Greg was the man that I met last week who told me the story of how his family could not understand his speech and did not seem to try to interpret him. Greg was thrilled to see me and parked his wheelchair in the doorway for a couple of minutes. Greg was concerned about a pair of winter socks that he had bought but had not been labeled yet. I assured him that if the socks were in any of the bins that I would label them and bring them to him. Luckily I found the socks later in the day and was able to brighten Greg’s day.
I also saw Betsy, who came on the outing last week. As she is one of the more mobile residents, she was helping a neighbor unwrap chocolate candies. Betsy is always trying to help others. Overall, it was a typical Friday at the VA Home. I hope that I can soon do more one on one interactions with the residents, although I am able to chat with individuals while labeling and delivering clothes.
Yesterday I returned for the third week, and the nontrivial game four in this first season of the indoor hockey league at The Virginia Home. Upon walking into the recreation room, I was shocked to discover how rapidly the new sport was gaining popularity among staff members and residents alike. One-half of the “ice” was lined with spectators which was a drastic change from the prior week, and several new recruits warmed up with the Orange and Blue teams prior to the start of the match. I assumed my regular position on the far side, where I keep score and players’ statistics, and was joined by Reese the league referee who began joking about the numerous threats he had received over the past week for calling too many penalties in games two and three. However, the players almost appeared to try to avoid physical play and headon collisions this week (including Sean who racked up a total of seven penalties in the two previous games). Unfortunately for the Blue team, they failed to earn their first victory, as the Orange team won 3 - 2 and improved their season record to 3 - 0 - 1. Itemus scored an impressive goal from the complete opposite end of the court to bolster his team to a 3 - 1 lead, and the eventual “W.”
Over the past two weeks I have volunteered at the International Hospital for Children (IHC). My first activity was to be a translator for a mother and her son from Belize (which apparently has English as the official language but still has a lot of Spanish-speakers). The young boy was having a catheter removed after a long series of operations to fix a urological problem. It was a horrifying experience in that there was only one doctor who spoke Spanish! This poor little kid and his mother could only communicate with two people in the entire hospital.
Today I helped a Vincentian (i.e. form the island of St. Vincent) and his mother with getting to a hospital so that his heart could be expected after an operation. The mother talked to me quite a bit about the homesickness and culture shock that one
experiences being away from home. The ending of this little story is happy, though, since the boy and his mother will be returning home in just a week.
After learning from the volunteer coordinator at The Virginia Home that Brian and I were a success in our first poker night last week, we were invited back to play again Monday night. This week in addition to Reese, Itemus, and Greg, we were joined by another player named Bill for a game of Five Card Draw. (Apparently each week the residents mix it up with a different type of poker to keep things interesting.) After finishing as chip leader last week, Reese promised that he was going to take all my money; however, when I was dealt four aces the very first hand to beat Greg’s fullhouse it looked like my luck was continuing. The game was overall a lot of fun again, although with a church group sing along going on in the next room, Itemus had trouble withholding from his normal excessive celebrations as he took pot after pot. Also, Bill chimed in with some hilarious (and inappropriate for blogging) jokes which almost got us all into trouble. Though maybe I should not have been, I was also quite surprised when Greg sparked up some discussion on global warming, on which the whole group had some pretty interesting perspectives. In the end, Itemus was the clear winner, but Bill promised revenge next week if we play Texas Hold ‘Em, which he claims is his game.
Hey All, Okay I am going volunteering overboard. I LOVE to volunteer. Ever since first week of high school, I noticed a sign “Key Club!” I immediately join and forever hooked. In addition to volunteering with Palliative Care, I have begun volunteering at MCV’s Pediatric Inpatient on the 7th floor. I only volunteered for 2 hours but MAN did the hours go by. In the playroom, I played with this 11 year old boy, J, in Break the Ice and Uno. We also did a little painting before he had to leave for his treatment. He had to go in and out of the playroom because doctors and nurses kept wanting to talk or give him treatment. Since he is an older child and he has been in and out of the hospital for a long time, he was used to it but I can still see the strain on him. ChildLife volunteers make such a huge difference. Continue reading ‘First Day at Pediatric Inpatient’
Hello Dr. D because I am sure you are the only one reading this.Today at Palliative Care began very slowly as always. E, volunteer coordinator, does not usually work on Saturdays so usually I am free to do anything (well not ANYTHING…). So I refilled the ice bucket. I attempted to do Biochemistry book problems. I answered the phone and call bell. I attempted to do research for my Bonner community fund proposal to buy DVD players for PCU’s 8 patient rooms. But at last, the nurse told me that the person in charge, P, is coming and I needed to appear busy. She called up E and E told me that I could paint extra images on the wall mural. I SAY YAY!! Before Christmas break, an artist donated her time to paint a mural on one of the walls in the Family Room. Volunteers, such as I, were encouraged to help her paint some of the pictures. Before Christmas break, I painted a rock (woo hoo), treasure chest, clam, fish, and sea shell. Pretty good for a person who never painted before huh? E permitted patients’ families/visitors to add their personal touches to the mural as well. I typed up a list of images on the wall and we are going to make it into a Where’s Waldo game for the young children. Today, I painted a beach ball, beach towel, umbrella, and flip flops. I believe I did pretty good because I got a shading/shadowing techinque going on. There was not that many families in the morning. When the families start piling in during the afternoon, they were gawking at me while I was painting. They thought I painted the whole thing hahaha. They asked me how old I was and how long it took me. Obviously, I corrected them. For some reason. adults believe I am age 16 and kids think I am 30 or something insane. The families kept oohhing and aawwing that the mural was such a great idea and its very nice of us to do it. I am glad that we are making an impact. One lady from Pakistan asked me questions about where I was from, what I was studying, etc. We struck up a pretty good conversation about my mother, a Vietnamese immigrant, and how I am extremely appreciative of her. The lady told me that my mother is lucky to have me as a daughter haha. I responded that she was not the lucky one, but I was lucky to be raised by her. HAHA CORNY RIGHT? Anyways, it is true. Later, I made cookies for her family. I volunteered 5 hours today, which is 3 hours more than I planned to volunteer. However, painting is an extremely peaceful escape from classes, sciences, meetings, etc. Maybe when I am older, I would like to take cooking, painting, and photography classes. At this age, we have to pick and choose what we specialize in. You can’t have it all, not yet anyways. Volunteering is a great escape. I wish everyone did it. PEACE HOMES! Tran
Today I went to Chinafest at the Virginia Museum of Arts with three of the VA Home residents. With the help of one of the VA Home workers, we loaded the three onto a van to transport them to the museum. Billy had an electric wheelchair in which he could cruise around the museum. Betsy was able to walk around with the aid of her walker, which conveniently turned into a chair for when she tired. Patty, however, had to be pushed around in her wheelchair. When we first arrived at the museum, everyone wanted to split up. We tried to convince the residents that it would be best to stick together, but they went their seperate ways regardless. This splitting up turned out quite an ordeal as we had trouble finding Billy in the end. I was able to, however, find him after searching through the whole museum! The residents seemed to have fun looking at the paintings and sculptures at the museum and listening to the Chinese music. Patty, however, was sad that she could not sing along with the musice. I think she felt better when I admitted I couldn’t sing along either. It was a great experience to go on an outing with the VA Home residents. While many people looked at these residents strangely, many people at the museum were very helpful holding doors and moving aside to let us pass. The residents did not seem to be phazed that they could not participate in some of the activities such as the bracelet beading. I think they were just happy to get out of the home for an afternoon!
Today was my second day at the Virginia home. Friday is the day the residents could withdraw money from their bank accounts at the home and/or check their balance. On the weekends they do a lot of outings that involve spending money, so it is important that withdraw the proper amount. However, each resident has a monthly allowance and they must learn how to budget it ( some refuse to believe they are not millionaires). I helped organize the wheel chair lines and push those on manual wheel chairs and signed as a witness for residents who were taking out money but could not sign their name. While everyone was waiting in line, I had time to get to know a few of the patients and share a conversation. I met Ben and learned that like me, he is from upstate New York! He was really excited that I was from New York and told me about his father’s dairy farm there. I had trouble understanding a lot of the words he was saying, but he didn’t mind repeating them and asking him yes/no questions helped clarify what he was saying. I then met man named Al, who taught me a handshake and sang me some songs. I feel that today I became better at being able to understand who patients are saying. I have learned to read lips and listen really carefully and ask questions. They want to be understood and I want to listen to them. After the money withdraws, I helped make posters for their play next month. These signs had words to cue the audience on what to do, such as “laugh” or “applause”.
